


Grounding Line

by Skeren



Series: Tapestry of Souls [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen, Pack Dynamics, Platonic Soulmates, Unconventional take on all of those
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 01:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14885030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeren/pseuds/Skeren
Summary: First meetings aren't always the impressive things that people expect them to be.





	Grounding Line

James Rupert Rhodes was an alpha that, upon entering high school, still had yet to figure that out. This was in large part due to the fact that his first few months of high school happened when he was twelve, not fourteen, and though he turned thirteen not long after, it was still a rather considerable gap that left him flagging badly behind everyone else in the social game. There was one blessing in the whole thing at least, and it was that he’d _long_ since picked a gender to identify with as he waited for his body to catch up and decide what it was it wanted to do. He’d always been determined to be a he, and when the alpha part came later, that was just nature for you. He’d always been a geeky kid too, in love with rockets and science and everything space, which meant that he realized fairly early on after puberty that he’d have an uphill battle in those fields just for the simple fact that he wasn’t a beta. 

He had his advantages, of course. One of them was that he had always been the youngest in his year, pushed through to enroll so he started the school year an age behind everyone else. Then, in third grade, admittedly in no small part because of his tendency to end up in fights, or just plain ending fights really, his ma had pushed again to get him skipped up a grade. He’d never been very good at taking an insult and being youngest in his class hadn’t helped. Getting skipped up a grade had made it _worse_ to a degree, but the fights had slowed down when he had other things to occupy his time. His ma liked to say that that was when he finally started to learn something while being in trouble. Which, to be fair, was true. His teachers after he skipped past third grade had apparently determined that the fighting was mostly not _his_ fault, and during those rare times when he got in trouble for it, he found himself sent home with a massive workload to be completed rather than getting free time from suspensions. It was both great and terrible and inspired him to learn to keep his temper and to keep out of trouble both. 

High school hadn’t been anything like grade school, it turned out. No, instead it was a maze of hormones that didn’t even kick in for him until he’d been there over a year, and he had been out of his depth from the start when it came to trying to navigate it. Rather than fighting for a position in the school hierarchy via being a social butterfly of _any_ sort, he’d instead promptly turned his full attention to doing everything he could to build himself up for a scholarship of _some_ kind. He was lucky, and his mama wasn’t poor, but she was still a widow with two kids, and if he wanted to chase the best schools in the country it would _definitely_ not be on her dollar. To this end, rather than PE he’d taken up the Airforce JROTC at his school as a freshman and stuck with it right up until his final year. 

Said year had ended up being a year earlier than he’d actually planned for it to be and clipped his potentially leisurely senior year off the docket entirely. He would have finished his senior year at sixteen, started college just before seventeen, and been proud of having shaved off the time that much. Instead, he’d taken a dare, and that dare had gotten him the immediate intense focus from the adults in his Airforce classes. As a sophomore, he _technically_ hadn’t needed to take the ACT _or_ the SAT, but his mouth had run away from him, and he’d ended up begging his mom to cover the costs of the tests on the promise that if he did badly he’d have learned his lesson and he’d find a way to pay for the retakes on his own.

He’d gotten incredibly high scores instead, and that had somehow worked out to a deal with the Airforce so he’d have his college years, _at MIT no less,_ paid for if he consented to the increased workload of basically smashing his junior and senior years into one year. It had been stressful, sure, but he also figured it was worth it. He’d be a rocket scientist and _best of all_ , his ma wasn’t going to have to pay for it. There was even an added bonus of him having a job waiting for him as soon as he had his degree. It was, essentially, the best he could have hoped for, and he’d gone off to college full of excitement. Then, he’d gotten to college and had had the most miserable wakeup call of his life. 

Nobody who was eighteen or nineteen liked to be shown up by a little sixteen-year-old who happened to be smarter than them. Sure, he wasn’t _dramatically_ so, but his first-year classes were so much less stressful than his final year of high school had been that it had felt effortless in comparison during that first semester. This had, sadly, won him absolutely _no_ favors. Jockeying for lab time had been a nightmare and a half for the entirety of that first year, but he’d managed, keeping in mind that he already had a place waiting for him out in the world when he as done. He was _set_.

Then, in second year, all that got turned on its head as a tiny little thing, an omega who barely knew it, crossed his path and changed some of the bigger points on the course of his life. He’d actually planned to not get into it when he’d spotted the figure hauling boxes that looked far too big from a car that pretty much _screamed_ money. He’d figured they had a helper somewhere and thus didn’t need any help from _him_. That resolve had last right up until he’d gotten closer and the wind shifted direction, giving him a face full of the most familiar, yet unfamiliar, scent he’d ever caught wind of. 

He wasn’t terribly impressed, even if he _did_ instinctively recognize what this happened to be.

So, soulmates smelled like tiny omegas hauling boxes. Right then. It was a rather caustic thought, but it was enough to spur him forward to where the little guy, who honestly barely reached his shoulder it was so ridiculous, was trying to leverage a stuck box out from a door that didn’t look big enough to let it. He knew the exact moment that he was noticed because the omega froze, wide brown eyes turning to blink up at him with the air of someone who had been hit over the head when they weren’t looking. It was adorable, but also understandable, and he decided to take the initiative to actually get the conversational ball rolling since the little thing clearly didn’t have any words for him in their shock.

“James Rhodes, he. So, what’s got you visiting? Helping a relative move in? If you need another set of hands I’m willing.” He hadn’t planned to offer anything of the kind, because really, rich white kid, but, well, the words were out, and this _was_ apparently his soulmate. The worst that could happen would be if the kid thought he was annoying and wouldn’t let him have any contact info once they were done, he was sure.

The omega instantly narrowed their eyes at his questions, almost suspicious, but their shoulders slumped just as quickly on a sigh. “Tony Stark, also he. I’m here to move _myself_ in actually. Room C on hallway four.” 

“Like, Stark Stark? I don’t envy you that one at _all_. Also, that room is just across the hall from mine.” And it belonged to one of the cattiest omegas that he had _ever_ had the misfortune to meet. “You know the omega living there?”

“Yes and no.” He grimaced on the no. “I did meet zem though, they’re...”

“A pre-madonna who makes you want to strangle zem within five seconds of making contact? Yeah, that’s not going to wear off. I don’t have a roommate so you can bounce over to my side instead if you like, though cross-type housing isn’t exactly encouraged.”

“Well, given that you’re apparently my _soulmate_ I think they’ll make an exception for me. I’m not calling you James, just so you know, and Mr. Rhodes is right on out so don’t even try me. Rhodey though... How’s that sound? I mean, you are offering to help me haul my crap and it can stand until we know each other a little better.” Finally seeming to perk up, Tony turned back to wrestling the box free, only to nearly topple over with the sound of ominously shifting metal once he actually accomplished his goal.

Him reaching out to grab the box was the only thing that kept his new soulmate from crashing to the ground and possibly dying from self-inflicted box damage. He wasn’t sure he _wanted_ to know what was in there, but he had to admit that his curiosity had been captured, because _why_? “Rhodey? Really? And what are you expecting me to call _you_? Honeybunch? Because I’m not exactly about to take being a sidekick lying down.”

“True, you are getting the honor of letting _me_ stay in _your_ room. I don’t mind the endearment by the way, so if you don’t want to call me by name you’re perfectly welcome to keep on with that.”

“And the notion of me calling you something like snookums or sweetie is _just_ fine with you?”

“Well, I’m not a puppy, but yeah, sure, you have fun.” The grin that he received as a reward was downright _toothy_. “Fair’s fair and all that. If I decide Rhodey isn’t fun for the day, I might even return fire.”

“Oh yeah?” He nudged the box lightly and the omega started to back toward their building, clinging to his side of the box for balance while the newly christened Rhodey steered them.

“Yeah! Like, say, my pizza pie!” 

“How about you work on that because that was terrible.”

“My cucumber chiller?”

“Really?”

“Smoothie of my heart.”

“You haven’t eaten in a while have you?” When he found himself getting a sheepish expression aimed at him, there was little more he could do than sigh. “Okay, right then. We’ll empty out this car and park it somewhere, then go get lunch, deal?”

“Absolutely! I mean. That’d be great, thank you.”

Rolling his eyes on an amused laugh, he decided that maybe his next year of college wouldn’t be even close to as bad as the first one had been. 

It was something to look forward to at least.

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently I have a bit of inspiration for multiple of these little side stories. Have Rhodey! Don't worry, I've not forgotten the main story at all. I just want to share these with you guys.


End file.
